


Good Night, Moon

by Stoic_Zee



Series: Ghost Tales and Other Spooky Stories [4]
Category: Bleach, Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, Late Night Conversations, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 07:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17976872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stoic_Zee/pseuds/Stoic_Zee
Summary: Natsume Takashi wondered why he bothered with exorcists. Youkai were one thing, humans were another, and except for Natori, exorcists were usually the worst of both worlds.Kurosaki Ichigo wasn't much of an exorcist. That was probably why Takashi liked him so much.





	Good Night, Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Set some vague time after A Sight for Sore Eyes. Natori and Ichigo are the unofficial exorcist branch of the Natsume protection squad.
> 
> Natsume saves helpless exorcists by being Natsume and wants to process the whole master-servant relationship someplace quiet. Ichigo is not exactly helpful in this regard.
> 
> Finally, Ichigo manifests and wears his shinigami uniform to exorcist meetings because he can.

Takashi tiptoed onto the porch and slid the door shut with barely a whisper. He turned around and nearly yelled in surprise at the sight of Kurosaki perched casually on the railing as if a wrong move wouldn’t send him falling hundreds of feet into the gorge below.

Kurosaki was still in his black samurai outfit and Takashi was surprised to see him in sock feet. He remembered Kurosaki removing his waraji with the rest of their shoes. But when he checked the by door they were gone. Takashi thought the man had decided to leave after all. More than a few people had been rattled to realize they lost over a day from the time loop. Many weaker exorcists fled at the first opportunity.

Natori had mentioned how grateful he was that there was no cell service. Otherwise he would have received an earful from his manager. In deference to Takashi’s initial exhaustion from freeing everyone, they planned to leave at first light.

Now Takashi was awake and wanted to think about his experience without disturbing anyone. It was why he had come out on the balcony rather stay in the room with Natori and Nyanko-sensei.

The older man glanced over his shoulder and smiled around a cigarette. “You really should stay inside. It’s safer tonight.”

Takashi frowned. “You shouldn’t smoke. It’s bad for your health.”

“Fair enough,” said Kurosaki. He plucked the cigarette from his mouth but didn’t put it out or throw it away.

Takashi approached the edge of the railing. It was built tall to make sure people wouldn’t fall off and came up to his chest. He leaned on wooden slats and peered down at the drop. Pale moonlight glinted off shiny evergreen leaves like a dark sea. The roar of the river was audible even this far up, but the river itself was shrouded in shadow at the bottom of the gorge.

The summer night was warm and pleasant. Takashi hadn’t even needed a jacket over his sleeping yukata. The faint breeze rising up from the gorge was refreshing. Even Kurosaki’s cigarette smelled sweet and clean.

Kurosaki stared up at the moon, occasionally drawing on his cigarette just enough to keep it alive, and let Takashi think quietly.

“Kurosaki-san, do you have any shiki?” asked Takashi eventually.

The exorcists had been cut off from any shiki they hadn’t already summoned once the time loop began. It was how people had started to notice something was wrong. The exception had been Matoba’s man-made shiki, which had no personal sense of time and were unaffected by the mischievous spirit pranking the inn. A lot of the exorcists had panicked at the idea of being permanently separated from their servants and were completely useless the entire time. Kurosaki hadn't been bothered in the slightest.

“Nope,” said Kurosaki instantly.

Takashi blinked in surprise. It was true that he had never seen Kurosaki use any shiki, but most exorcists had at least one servant. “Why not?”

“I don’t need any shiki,” said Kurosaki. “If there’s something I absolutely need from a youkai. I can call in a favor. Or ask for one. Comes from first seeing youkai in their territory, I suppose.”

“You trade in favors with youkai?” asked Takashi. “Isn’t that kind of dangerous? What if you forget and don’t pay it back?”

Kurosaki looked genuinely startled by this question. “I won’t forget.”

“Are you sure?” pressed Takashi. “Youkai keep asking me to resolve situations my grandmother created. Those aren’t even real favors, and I still have to settle her debts.”

Kurosaki eyed him carefully then shrugged. “I am very strong for a human. You’re not very practiced at sensing spiritual power, and I have spent a lot of time learning to suppress mine, so you can’t get an accurate gauge. But in terms of raw spiritual power, I am the strongest living human you will ever meet.”

“Oh,” said Takashi more shocked than anything else. Kurosaki sounded utterly confident in this announcement, even though they were staying in the same inn as the head of the Matoba Clan, who was widely acknowledged as one of the strongest exorcists ever.

“I say this because it means I am strong enough to feel the debts I owe to youkai and the debts they owe me,” said Kurosaki. “I can feel the echo of those debts in my soul the same way a youkai would. It's impossible for me to forget.”

“Oh,” said Takashi again. He hadn’t realized that was even possible. “Is that why you don't socialize with the other exorcists? You're always play betting games with the shiki on the roof. And you’re trading favors?”

“That’s right,” said Kurosaki. “Very good, Takashi-kun.” He looked up. “Oh, here it comes.”

Takashi looked up too. At first he thought a cloud had passed over the face of the moon. He gasped as he realized it was a giant youkai flying toward the inn.

“What is that?” demanded Takashi.

“We were in that time-loop for over a day before anyone noticed,” said Kurosaki. “Matoba’s monthly visitor is coming a day earlier than he realized.”

Takashi gaped. “We have to wake him up! We need to warn him and everyone else.”

“They’re too tired,” said Kurosaki. He lifted his cigarette and took a long drag.

It was, Takashi realized through the panic, an impossibly long drag. The cigarette was mostly intact before Kurosaki started and almost totally ash by the time he stopped. Kurosaki held his lungs full of smoke for a beat then breathed out a giant cloud.

The cloud of smoke caught the moonlight and began to glow. The smoke uncurled into a giant dragon with two glowing dots of reiki for eyes and gleaming teeth and claws. The dragon flew up to meet the approaching youkai, and the two opposing forces engaged in pitched battle.

Takashi had seen strong spirits fight before. Close up it was a terrible experience. From further away, the battle was magnificent in the way of all destructive acts of nature. He couldn’t tear his eyes away.

The silvery smoke dragon and the dark youkai tore at each other, rending ghostly flesh with each swipe of claw and bite of fang. Ichor, golden and black, seeped from open wounds and scattered like drops of rain across the trees below. The injuries faded as quickly as they formed, energy billowing up from within to seal the gashes the moment the opponents drew apart. The youkai pressed ever forward and the dragon pressed ever back and neither one gained ground for an age.

After what had to be hours of fighting, the large youkai turned and fled. Kurosaki’s smoke dragon returned to circle the inn, once, twice. After the third circuit, the dragon closed its eyes and faded back into smoke, which then blew away in the light breeze.

“Impressive.”

Takashi nearly jumped out of his skin, but it was only Nyanko-sensei. The maneki-neko had made his way outside sometime during the fight and was sitting by Takashi’s feet. Kurosaki hadn’t flinched at all at the unexpected voice.

“Do you think so?” asked Kurosaki.

Nyanko-sensei tugged at Takashi’s pant leg, and he obediently bent down to pick him up. The cat-shaped youkai wasn’t particularly graceful in this form, and Takashi could understand why he didn’t want to try to jump to sit on the tall railing.

“You must be very powerful,” said Nyanko-sensei. “Stronger even than rumors paint you, Angry Strawberry.”

Takashi blinked in surprise. He hadn’t realized there were rumors about Kurosaki. He was a newcomer to exorcist meetings having attended even fewer than Takashi, and he wasn’t from one of the big clans. Wait...

“Did you just say Angry Strawberry?” asked Takashi.

“I did,” said Nyanko-sensei. “I thought you were a youkai.”

Kurosaki groaned. “That is _not_ how my name is spelled. It’s _ichi_ as in “first” and _go_ as in “guardian.” First protector. Not strawberry.”

Takashi had to admit that was a pretty cool name, much better suited to Kurosaki than strawberry.

“You definitely aren’t a youkai if you’re sharing your name so freely,” said Nyanko-sensei. He narrowed his eyes. “You’re more than strong enough. Why didn’t you exorcise the youkai attacking Matoba?”

Takashi frowned at Nyanko-sensei. “I thought it was too powerful for a single exorcist to handle.”

“I could,” said Kurosaki easily. “But I have reservations about helping the Matoba Clan in that way.”

Takashi shifted Nyanko-sensei’s weight to one arm and pointed at the sky where the battle had just taken place.

“Matoba wasn’t the only person in danger tonight, and he genuinely wasn’t prepared. I don’t know if that first youkai intended to make it easier for Matoba to lose his eye, but it would have happened before he had a chance to fight back,” said Ichigo.

“Fair enough,” said Nyanko-sensei. “But you mentioned reservations. I’d like to hear those, if you don’t mind.”

Kurosaki looked out across the gorge. “Even if it is their fault, the Matoba are in a bad place. Their clan head has suffered monthly youkai attacks for generations, and they choose strong, cruel shiki on purpose. It’s enough to poison anyone against youkai. I’d like to believe that without that threat of constant attacks that the Matoba would be able to relax and start to see that most youkai aren’t any better or worse than humans.

“But given the actions of the current Matoba, I think they’re more likely to gather the resources usually invested in warding off that one youkai and launch an assault to attempt to eliminate all youkai from this world.”

Natsume gasped quietly. He didn’t want to believe anyone would do such a thing, but Matoba hated youkai even more than Natori used to. Hate and fear could make people do terrible things. He knew that from personal experience.

“I’m not a nice person. I’ve killed people before, youkai _and_ humans, to keep my precious people safe. But I’m not willing to pour that much blood on my hands, even if it means continuing to let Matoba suffer,” said Ichigo.

“You have a brain in that fluffy orange head. Now I’m really impressed,” said Nyanko-sensei.

Kurosaki’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you calling fluffy, cat-pig?”

Nyanko-sensei’s shrieks of outrage were enough to bring Natori and his shiki running. It definitely wasn’t the quiet night Takashi had been expecting, and he had a lot more to think about than when he started, but it was a good night. And that was better.

**Author's Note:**

> At the time of posting, I have only made it to late season three of Natsume Yuujincho, so I have no idea if we know what the demon attacking the Matoba look likes, but I thought big and ominous would be acceptable.
> 
> Ichigo may be acting out of character, but his approach to youkai is naturally different from his approach to shinigami. I'm head-canoning that Ichigo has spent a lot of time in youkai worlds and is a wee bit older than he looks. Also, Ichigo's perfect storm of hybrid superpowers directly correlates to his strength as an exorcist making him unnaturally strong for a human. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Please comment on what you like!


End file.
